Martin Scorsese's ("Kundun"/"Raging Bull") The Color
of Money is for all intensive purposes a sequel to
Robert Rossen's 1961 The Hustler, a vibrant film that
gave one an insider's look at the underground doings
of the pool hall world. Paul Newman re-creates his
memorable role of Fast Eddie Felson, as the film picks
up on Felson 25 years after he walked out of Chalkie's
pool hall and found himself blackballed from playing
pool professionally. The new version has a tension all
its own, as Richard Price reworked the pool hustler
novel of Walter Tevis so it fits in with the '80s.
Scorsese also added a compelling soundtrack that has
such diverse musicians as Eric Clapton, Charlie
Parker, Warren Zevon and Bo Diddley. This version is
filmed in color by Michael Ballhaus. The film tries to
tell us that the pool hustle is no different from the
game of life and shuns going for the expected
climactic showdown pool hall game, as it wishes to
convey that the true meaning of life is in finding
one's own true way and not necessarily in winning the
game.

I enjoyed the film for what it was as a pop culture
character study of the hustler and found it at times
absorbing (especially watching the 9-ball game,
billiard balls never looked so strange and glossy),
but I just had my eye out for the hustle and never
felt relaxed enough to let my guard down and believe
this was the real thing like I thought of the
original. No longer set in the seedy but colorful pool
halls of the '60s but in ones that are lit in bright
neon lights and are as airy as palaces, the film looks
less arty and more conventional.

Fast Eddie Felson is a slick silver-haired part-time
liquor salesman working the Midwest territory in his
white Cadillac convertible. He spots the cocky but
likable, skillful but naive Vincent Lauria (Tom
Cruise), an insecure clerk in a Chicago toy store,
playing a mean game of pool and his old hustler juices
start bubbling again as he recruits the brash kid to
get on the professional circuit (becoming a front man
for promising pool hall prospects like the character
George C. Scott played in the original, now calling
himself a "student of human moves"). Hotshot Vince
agrees to Eddie as mentor and manager and they go on
the road with Vince's sexy, toughie girlfriend Carmen
(Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), who is looking for a
more exciting life. But the smart broad spells trouble
as she spends her time either flirting with Eddie or
stroking the nasty Vince's ego, and challenging Eddie
for control over their hot property.

On their way to the respectable Atlantic City 9-ball
classic Vincent has a problem understanding Eddie's
hustling techniques, as he's asked to throw games to
get better odds during matches at local pool halls.
Eddie, as the manipulator of innocence, is prone to
give off such prosaic philosophizing as "Money won is
twice as sweet as money earned." But despite their
volatile differences, the two have a profitable
relationship. In the end Vince learns his lessons only
too well, while the resilient Eddie has a change of
heart and learns to invest in himself and not in the
hustle. The choices are now not in doing what is right
or wrong, as in the original, but driven by
motivations that are more ambiguous, as Scorsese
leaves it up to the viewer to decide what's
right.

Among the supporting players, Helen Shaver is
appealing as the barmaid Fast Eddie calls his steady
squeeze, and John Turturro is sparkling as a pool
hustler Vince plays on his way to bigger things.